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Hench-Clan Thug Card Review

This seems like a very strong card in Rogue. Probably not in any other class – even heavy weapon classes like Warrior or Paladin don’t attack every turn. It could also work in Druid, but Druid doesn’t want to Hero Power every turn. Rogue can Hero Power every second turn and this will still grow.

Assuming you play weapon in Rogue on Turn 2, play this on Turn 3 and attack, it starts as a 3 mana 4/4 that will grow every turn by +1/+1. While it doesn’t snowball hard, if your opponent doesn’t remove it immediately, it will only get harder and harder. In case it’s Silenced by Spellbreaker, it’s not that bad – you can trade your 3-drop for their 4-drop and they’ve used their Silence already.

It won’t be wide-spread on the ladder, because it pretty much fits only into a Tempo Rogue deck (or maybe Miracle, but I’m not sure) – but it looks really promising in that build.

Self buffing cards have rarely seen play, and its safe to say this will be another one since it doesn’t buff itself fast enough to make it worth playing over some of the best three cost cards out there at the moment.

What are you talking about? :’D
This card gets buffed the turn it gets out. As Rogue you always have the option to dagger up on turn 2, then play this on turn 3 and swing with your weapon immediately, so it’s always a 4/4 for 3 mana the turn it comes out with potential of getting stronger.
I can totally see this being played in Keleseth Rogue, where most of the time you dagger up on turn 2 anyway.

I don’t think a conditional three mana 4/4 is worth playing either. The others in the game at the moment haven’t really seen play outside of arena or at all.
Plus, Rogue has access to better three cost minions, SI:7 Agent, Edwin VanCleef, Tar Creeper, even Blink Fox and the new weapon buff minion.
Sure, this can get bigger than 4/4, but that buffing is slow and won’t happen every turn even in Rogue and Druid.

A vanilla 4/4 for 3 would not see any play at all unless it had a super beneficial tribal tag. A similar card example would be Daring Reporter from Mean Streets, which while it was a vanilla 4/4 for 4 at the start of your opponent’s turn, it was easier to grow passively since your opponents want to draw.

In the situation you are describing with Rogue, this would be a very slow card to play with. Maybe it will be fine on curve if all you did was use your hero power on turn 2, but the odds are stacked against this card at the very least. This is far from Shade of Naxx, and that only saw regular play in Druid, a class that was able to summon it turn 1.

Also, Rogue can pretty easily play SI:7 and other 3 cost combo cards since the class has Preperation, Back Stab, and other 0 cost cards, and with the right hand, Edwin can easily be a 6/6 on 3.

I think you are wrong on this one. This is way above average for rogue on 3. I don’t know, if you played Keleseth Rogue pre Patches nerf, but if you did, you will have played SI:7 Agent on 3 for tempo a lot of times, not making use of its combo. While SI:7 having its own strengths, this is a much better proactive play.
It knocks for 5 on Turn 4, demands an answer, but has a good survivability with 4 health, baits the removal if they have it, even aggro opponents would often care about it to prevent favorable trades for you. All in all it sets up an uncomfortable turn for your opponent (curve/gameplan disruption) and if they can’t answer it, it even hits harder next turn.
I also don’t know why you compare it to cards in the 4 cost slot (Darin Reporter), but I’m sure Tempo Rogue is glad having both SI:7 and this one. In miracle i could see the Fox, though. Not sure.

I might be admittedly, but the history of self buffing cards and conditional 3 mana 4/4s would suggest the odds are at least against this card from being successful. Perhaps intersecting the two might be enough to make the concept of either viable, but I won’t be convinced until I see it.

Of course you don’t want to freeze your minions, but the point is that the power spike of either card is on turn 3 after daggering on 2, and it’s still not good enough for either of them (yes, this is marginally better than Frostrider). Another comparision: Silithid Swarmer. A 3 mana minion which instantly comes with 5 health and benefits off of a weapon on 2. Thug is a maximum 3 mana 3/5 IF it doesn’t die and you get both attacks off with the dagger, after which you need to redagger to keep building it and therefore lose the tempo lead. Even if Thug DOES grow to a 5/5 (which will be very unreliable), Silithid Swarmer’s 3 attack is still generally enough to kill anything in the turns where it’s relevant, a 3/5 is much better than a 4/4 on the turn it’s summoned…and it saw absolutely zero play. No reason to think differently here.

Sorry, but I think you only see, what you want to see here. First of all, I don’t get the point with the power spike. I can immagine what you mean with it. I think you want to say, that a 4/4 on 3 isn’t that great standalone. I think a 4/4 on 3 is good in tempo rogue, as long as it doesn’t freeze your fire firefly of turn 1, and even more important, your whole board later in the game. The potential to become a 5/5 unanswered, makes it even better. Now you say it could be answered and I say, of course it can be answered. But it’s a lot harder to answer than a tempo SI:7 against control for example. That’s what makes it such a good proactive turn 3 play. Think of Warlocks or Priests removal options in the current Metagame. A 4/4 on Turn 3 is nuts against these decks. Do we really have to discuss about Swarmer? Yeah, you’re right, Swarmer has a great Statline on 3, but the downside of having to attack is so bad, i don’t know what to say else here, honestly.

What you do is comparing slightly overstatted cards with a reasonable downside, what makes them unplayable in constructed, to a slightly overstatted card (in rogue), which even has an upside.